


Cassiopeia

by lavendercumulus



Series: Constellation's Shift [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gender Identity, Plotty, Post-Canon, Trans Female Character, Trans Link (Legend of Zelda), Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24284065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavendercumulus/pseuds/lavendercumulus
Summary: “Zora scale, Rito feather, Korok twig, Goron molt, Hylian hair, held in a glass bowl made out of desert sand and taken to the bottom of the well. They will know what to do.” Zelda read in a hush.“Any clue where the bottom of the well is?” Zelda asked, looking relieved.-----In the quiet chill of night in Rito Village, a malignant thought came to Zelda. Yet another adventure had started before she had even gotten used to having a body again.And now those tortures, indignities, battles, and losses from the dark crypt of Hyrule Castle were catching up with her.
Series: Constellation's Shift [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1388956
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

Link shouted as she leapt away from the boulder the hinox threw. The great beast was catching its breath when Zelda’s arrow pierced its eye and it fell.

Link whooped in feral joy running back to Zelda and throwing her in the air. Zelda laughed, her teeth flashing in the sun.

“So what’s the deal with them?” Gil asked Beedle as they leisurely walked through the Hylians’ path of desolation.

“Well, I’ve known Link for about a year now, but Zelda for the last week or so. They’re the hero and princess from before, and I guess they’ve grown a lot closer since Zelda woke up. Link has memory loss, but she always made it sound like they barely tolerated each other before,” Beedle said, frowning slightly.

Gil nodded. In the distance, Link swung the master sword into a moblin’s thigh.

“So they’re not a thing?” Gil asked, squinting over Beedle’s head.

“Umm, not that I know of? Link calls Zelda her sister.” Beedle said, frowning.

Gil’s arm suddenly shot out, stunning a keese that had been angling for Beedle’s back. It fell to the ground stunned.

“Ugh, thanks,” Beedle said. “Are you going to kill it?”

“No, I don’t kill things unless it’s really necessary,” Gill replied as they resumed their stroll. He put his hand on his chin, in thought.

“I didn’t study Triforce bearers intensively, it was only tangentially related to my work about the great flood, but I think the hero and princess are often romantically involved. It’s fascinating because it seems like the Triforce of Wisdom is always passed on genetically while the Triforce of Courage only occasionally is. A member of the royal family has never been a Hero, even though some of the Hero’s line is commingled with their heritage. It seems that the Triforce of Power is inherently related to Gerudo genetics, though I suppose it's possible I am a descendant of Ganon himself… Are you alright?” Gil asked, looking at Beedle.

Zelda had taken Link’s hand and was resting her head on Link’s shoulder. Beedle had an odd look on his face.

“Oh, uh, sorry I don’t really know anything about Hylian history or lore. I’m not actually from Hylia,” Beedle said distractedly. “I’m Labrynnian.”

“Interesting!” Gil said, excitedly. His booming voice shocked Beedle to attention. Though they had not known each other long, Beedle knew that the intellectual focus of Gil was unavoidable.

“That’s quite far, isn’t it? East of Hebra?” Gil asked.

“Yeah, it wasn’t easy to get here…” Beedle acknowledged, “To be honest I almost died.”

“Faaaascinating. I’ve read that Labrynnians are particularly suited to mountain travel due to the high altitude of Labrynna, but that would also make sense that Hebra is about as terrible as it can get. What a terrible journey! Why did you come to Hyrule?” Gil pressed.

“Err… I had some differences with my village,” Beedle said.

“Enough to cross a desolate wasteland? That’s a very long way to go just because of differences.” Gil said.

“I umm… don’t really want to talk about it,” Beedle said, uncomfortably. “It was a hard journey, and I’m never going back. I don’t like to think about that part of my life.”

“Oh, sorry,” Gil said, blinking and leaning back out of Beedle’s personal space. “I have trouble sometimes when I try to figure something out. I sometimes forget how pushy I can be.

“No worries! It’s not really a secret, but it’s not something I like to dwell on or talk about lightly,” Beedle said, waving his hand casually. “If it ever comes up sometimes when we’re around a campfire, I’ll tell you, but for now-”

Beedle yanked the boat oar out of his pack, walloping the stone the Octorok spat back at it. It flopped back into its hole with a puff of smoke.

“Let’s keep moving!” He said posing with the oar and winking.

Gil snorted.

\------------  
The next morning, Beedle crested the hill a little behind Link. It made a lot of sense to leave his pack with the others at the stable, but he felt off-balance without its sturdy weight on his shoulders.

“That can’t be good for your back, Bee,” Link chided when he mentioned the feeling. She was halfway up a sheer cliff, twisted in a knot to grasp at a mushroom growing there, so Beedle didn’t think she had much room to talk.

At the top of the hill, the air seemed crisper, more electric. Beedle almost felt dizzy. He had no hand at magic, but often thought he could feel it, like a jolt of energy, on the air. He breathed deep.

Link walked up to the fountain, and Beedle was struck by how in her element she was. This was Link, a little feral, a lot magic, and good for making Beedle feel alive. Her outline seemed to shimmer in the rarefied air.

He must have missed something Link said, she was giving him one of those incredulous but sweet smiles and reached back to grab his forearm. Beedle stumbled forward in her grasp.

“-she’s offered before to me, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to trade something. So we find out what it is first, then we can go get it.” Link was saying.

Beedle nodded. Had her eyes always been that blue?

He was shocked out of his reverie though, once they’d made it to the giant plant pod, which opened dramatically. Beedle thought he was prepared, but still, all thoughts were pushed out of his head but HUGE, SCARY, LOUD and-

“Pink,” he whispered helplessly to himself.

“What my friend here is wondering,” Link said, with a settling clap on Beedle’s back, “Is if you can use your power to do the opposite of what you offered me.”

The great fairy’s laugh shook the valley, sending birds from their trees.

“Oh, hero, child, I can do so, so many things you'd never believe. SO many things,” said the Great Fairy, wriggling her eyebrows suggestively at Link.

“She’s always like this, all of them are huge flirts,” Link whispered to Beedle.

“No secrets!” Kaysa said pouting and sending ribbons of blinding magic out of the pond. Beedle rubbed his eyes to see again. Suddenly his sight was overwhelmingly full of giant lady.

“It would be my pleasure to set body and mind in alignment for this handsome lad!”

Another eruption of stars. Beedle thought he heard the Great Fairy mutter, “shame about the nose though.”

The great fairy, Kaysa raised her arms in the air, gesturing broadly. 

“This kind of transformation used to be my specialty, Link. Before the Calamity, when I was rich, err, I mean powerful, I had lines of beings of all shapes and sizes visiting my pond to get their gender presentation ironed out. And not all of them needed their bodies fixed, some just wanted someone to talk to…” 

“Really?” Link interrupted, sounding like it was ripped from her throat. Beedle turned, she looked devastated. He took her hand out of instinct. 

She startled, looking at their clasped hands in shock. But she seemed to snap out of it. Link gave Beedle a quick look of thanks before turning to the Kaysa. 

Kaysa looked worried, which was simultaneously soft and beyond human understanding.

“Immortal beings don’t spend much time on ‘what-ifs,’” she said, reaching out to brush Link’s hair with her enormous thumb. “But I do sometimes wonder what might have been had you been born in the East, dear girl.”

Link huffed out a lung full of air.

“Well, regardless of what might have been, Beedle could use your help now,” Link said gruffly.

“Yes! Let’s get to business!” Kaysa said, turning her terrifying grin to Beedle.

A short conversation later, and Beedle was matching the Great Fairy for terrifying grins.

“You’re KIDDING me!” he squealed when Kaysa had finished. “That’s ALL? I can find that garbage in a day! And only 1,000 rupees?! LINK I’ll meet you back here, I have materials to find!!!!!”

Beedle ran off, because, seriously? He knew a spot to get garnet nearby and had always kept a hearty durian in his bag.

In the clearing, Kaysa laughed at the cloud of dust Beedle left behind. 

“Well my dear, we’re finally alone,” she said, winking at Link.

“Guess so,” Link sighed, flopping down on the platform.

“I’m… sorry that I didn’t know, you know, a hundred years ago,” Kaysa said, reaching out again to stroke Link’s hair. “I don’t believe we met before the Calamity, though I did hear about your exploits. But this wasn’t on your mind when I saw you last, what changed since then, my dear girl?”

“I didn’t have my memories before,” Link said, leaning against Kaysa’s palm. “Now I do, and I almost can’t believe how broken I was, compared to who I am now. It’s just… painful to know that if I had only lived somewhere else I might have known who I was earlier. Maybe I couldn’t have changed anything, but at least I would have known…”

“It’s true my dear,” Kaysa sighed. “But it’s impossible to know what else that might have changed. Think of the friendships you’ve made, the people you know and knew because of what happened. Like your excitable man there.”

Link chuckled, and Kaysa bit her lip.

“Goddess, you have no idea how adorable you are,” the great fairy said with a sigh. “I would like to grant you a boon, which you can decide if you like or not, and I can undo it at any time.”

“... I’m listening,” Link said.

\------

Just before sunset, Beedle made it back to the top of the hill, arms full of ingredients and heart fluttering. Link scrambled up to meet him.

“Finally you’re back! You have to see what we did!” Link said excitedly.

“Oh! Umm, okay, I’ll just put this down,” Beedle said, looking left and right for a spot to drop his spoils.

“I’ll take that, we can keep it in reserve for once you’ve observed my brilliance,” Kaysa said smugly, plucking everything from Beedle's arms.

“Okay! So! What’s different?” Link said, throwing her arms to the side. Beedle cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“While I thoroughly approve of showing off your fine body, I think we were more subtle than your man will be able to tell,” Kaysa demurred. “Let me explain. Beedle, both you and I know that Link isn’t interested in changing her body significantly to line up for whatever society defines being a woman as. Which is lovely. It’s hard for me to not spend my talents on my favorite hero though! So what could I do to grant a small, but not life-changing boon? Both you and I know that our hero has hips that any femme-identifying being would die for.”

“Obviously,” Beedle said, just as Link said, “duh.”

“So I made a subtle little change here and there to give Link a little more jiggle in the upper half without sacrificing mobility. It’s subtle but effective, I think.”

“Oh SHIT! Link! Stop doing that and put your arms together in front of your body,” Beedle said excitedly.

Link did, sharing her newly acquired cleavage.

“It’s such a small change, I don’t even feel them,” Link said, “I can still draw a bow and fight, but they do make me feel just a little more femme. And Kaysa can change them back if I change my mind.”

“I think boobs look great on you, Link! If you like it and it doesn’t bother you, then I think it’s wonderful. I’m so happy for you!” Beedle squealed!

Beedle and Link squealed and Kaysa sighed contentedly.

“Speaking of boobs, though, I’ve been dreaming of this day since Link told me it might be possible. If you’re ready, Great Fairy, I’d love to get this gender alignment party started,” Beedle said.

Kaysa laughed with joy, and the clearing flashed with light again.

\---  
The sensations were overwhelming the entire walk back. Beedle kept putting his hand to his chest, unbelieving at the lack of flesh and binder. It felt like his center of weight was in a different place and he had to walk just a little differently. The closest experience he could think of was when he had cut off his long curly hair for the first time. But even that was a thousand times weaker than this.

He felt like he was breathing in the right body for the first time.

He had been somewhere dark and warm when a flash of light brought him back to the earth. Link and the great fairy came back into focus as well as an awareness of an ache throughout his whole body.

“You’ll need to take it easy for a few days, while I can change your body in a second, it will take your brain a while to adjust. And just remember, we agreed on fully functioning equipment, so you’ll have to take the appropriate contraceptive precautions once you’re 100%.” Kaysa reminded him as he slowly got to his feet.

“You also might find some changes in your mood, if they get too unmanageable, come and we’ll talk. Or just come and talk anyways,” She continued.

Kaysa was shocked into silence as a sobbing Beedle leaping fully from the platform to hug her neck. Beedle blubbered something that may have been profuse thanks, or potentially Gerudo. Even he wasn’t exactly sure.

“Well aren’t you a sweetheart! Yes, do come to visit me whenever you feel like you need to, you are welcome, and please don’t do anything even approaching that strenuous in the next 36 hours,” Kaysa said, patting Beedle affectionately.

\---------------------------

As Link and Beedle neared the table, Link asked, “Do you want to tell the others?”

“Huh!” Beedle said. “I mean, I’ll tell Toren, he’s always been a friend, and he’ll be so excited to hear about the great fairy. If you want to tell Zelda and Gil, that’s fine, I’m sure you’ll want to tell them about your exciting add ons,” Beedle said, elbowing Link.

“I’ll tell Zelda and Gil, but I don't really care about anyone else,” Link said. “I figure it’s my body, my business. You’re the main person I talk to about the trans stuff anyways. For the most part, everyone uses the right gender these days, which I know is thanks to you in no small part.”

“We look out for each other, that’s just how it works,” Beedle said, stretching, and enjoying the feeling of his new chest. 

He smiled hugely at Link.


	2. Feathers

They left Beedle at Tabantha Stable, crafting a story for a wildly jealous Toren.

Link didn’t feel that different, which was how she liked it. The night before she’d explained to a curious Zelda why she didn’t want a full physical transformation like Beedle had.

“I know my body so well, probably better than anyone else. I know its limits, I know it’s power, and I know it’s quirks. I write with my left hand even though I hold my sword in my right. I can tell by sight whether or not I can fit through a hole, I can tell if clothes will fit by looking at them. My body was the first thing I knew when I woke up in the Chamber of Resurrection.”

“I don’t want to change anything big, it doesn’t feel right, or like I want. I know my body and trust my body.”

“I hope you never feel differently,” Zelda said. “I know that people have these ideas of what being a woman is, and they probably try to force them on you.”

“Well, yeah, that hasn’t really changed in the past century,” Link said, thinking about Kohnba.

“But you can be a woman in just the way you want, they don’t get to decide what you can or can’t do,” Zelda said, gesturing broadly with her arms.

Link laughed, enjoying the warm happiness filling her chest.

Gil was already shivering by the time they made it to the Rito Stable. Link sat him down to weave a Rito headdress into his long hair by the fire. 

“Well it seems like we didn’t need to come here anyway you already had Rito feathers,” Gil grumbled under a blanket as Link worked.

“Like I’d give these up! They’ve been blessed by so many great fairies, I wouldn’t be surprised if you start sweating!” Link said.

“I think it’s important that these items are all acquired directly from members of each tribe. If I learned anything from that nasty book it was that it pays to be thorough with dark magic.” Zelda said from where she was lazily reading ‘The Rumor Mill.’

\------------------------

Zelda felt the wind blow something away from her on the bridge. She looked at the castle, just peeking out from the hills. There it was again, this western wind blowing something away, and reminding her of something from her past.

She felt numb and yet raw, but the moment passed and she followed Gil’s strong gait into Rito Village.

None of the Rito had much to say to the travelers, except for the children, who stormed Link in a chorus of tweets and giggles. Zelda noticed distantly how uncomfortable the Rito women were with Link, how confused the men were to meet a male Gerudo. 

“I’m guessing this will happen everywhere we go?” Gil joked, gesturing at the currently fluffy champion.

Zelda smiled, but the uneasy reception, as well as her feeling from the bridge, left her wishing she was somewhere else.

The meeting with the elder went smoothly. Too smoothly, if you asked Zelda. He happily accepted that she was the princess, gave a feather of his own, and had nothing more to ask. Zelda expected some questions about her intentions for Hyrule, some disruption, some kind of bravado. There was none of the cocky, lively warrior spirit of Revali to be found in the village. Only the children seemed to have much of any liveliness in them.

Zelda remembered what she had sworn to Link in the warmth of a Hyrule field night. So she asked, “Rito village does not seem like how I remember it. Has something happened in the last century?”

“We Rito have the shortest lives of all of the citizens of Hyrule,” Kaneli said to Zelda, with a somewhat bittersweet smile. “I fear that in this isolated aerie, we’ve become unused to mysteries, new people, and new experiences. The last few generations have been concerned with building our numbers and keeping our people alive. I would believe we’ve become a much more rigid society. There is not a lot of room for day dreaming as Rito in the modern era.”

“That’s a shame,” Gil said, sincerely. “My theory is that the Calamity sent many Hylian cultures into shock. For instance, it wasn’t until I left Hyrule that I realized how many things we didn’t question in Gerudo Town, which has a reputation as a fairly progressive place in Hyrule. I hope that there will be more space in all our communities now for inquiry, questions, and discovery.”

Zelda looked at Gil thoughtfully, she hadn’t considered how the absence of the Calamity usher in intellectual flourishing like he was suggesting. 

Zelda said, “I’m not the one for quotes or history, but I do remember a saying from the Zora Uprising. It goes, ‘There is not one question that we fight today-”

“-so our children may question the rest of our lives.” Gil finished with her, grinning.

The elder laughed affably. Their attention was brought back to Link and the children, who were using their combined flying strength to try and lift Link off the ground.

\------------------------

Hot, sweltering heat fell on Zelda’s limbs. She could scarcely breathe, but she struggled against the shackles holding her to the wall. They bit into her wrists, hot as fire. 

A sound of heating metal and stone filled the air, as though she were in the middle of Death Mountain. Her movements became more frantic, she had to get out of there, something terrible was coming! A low rumble filled the dungeon and a terrible red light filled the hallway outside the room.

“Fascinating, it decided to torture both of us at once,” a familiar voice said to her left. She had mainly heard it in a terrible cackle up until that point.

Through the sweltering heat, she could make a figure shackled to the wall. Looking gaunt and half dead, Gannon, her antagonist, looked at her curiously.

“Why would you be chained up? Aren’t you the one doing this,” Zelda asked, voice cracking in the unbearable heat.

Gannon chuckled. “If it were my choice, we would be having this conversation in the land of the dead. I may have been the vessel, but burning alive is not something I would choose, Princess.”

Just then a monstrous fire chu chu, hotter than anything Zelda had ever felt oozed through the door. She almost fainted in the full-blown heat. 

The chu chu charged Gannon and he screamed as the burning jelly touched his flesh. Zelda found herself screaming at the sight, but then Gannon fell still and the chu chu crossed the room. She pulled again at her shackles, attempted to climb the wall, but something was holding her feet. Just as she pulled free and was about to climb up the chain of her shackles, the chu chu touched her leg. Pure agony coursed up her spine.

And then splash! She awoke in a puddle of water. An anxious Gil held an empty bucket over her head, and Link stared anxiously at her side.

Zelda felt her heart leaping out of her chest, but after a few gulps of cold mountain air, she took closer stock of her surroundings.

Gil was sitting now, bucket on the ground, trying to look calm. By the inn entrance, children and one of the Rito warriors stood at attention. She took in Link, cautiously smiling, but an obvious slap mark on her cheek. 

Oh, it had been so much easier in Hateno, and only having to ask forgiveness of Link.

In the quiet chill of night in Rito Village, a malignant thought came to Zelda. Yet another adventure had started before she had even gotten used to inhabiting a body again.

And now those tortures, indignities, battles, and losses from the dark crypt of Hyrule Castle were catching up with her.

“I’m alright,” she said to the assembled beings. “Occasionally I have very bad nightmares from… a bad time in my life. I’m alright.”

The warrior nodded slowly, gathering his flock to go back to bed. Link had grabbed Zelda’s hand in concern at some point and was now rubbing it, eyes searching. She had offered many times to hear what Zelda had been dreaming about in a nightmare, but Zelda knew that if she told Link the details of the torture she had withstood for a century, Link would feel so guilty and that just wasn’t acceptable. Zelda could deal with it on her own.

Now that she had said she was alright, Gil stood and stretched.

“Well, what do you say, sleep or be awake?” he asked, casually.

“Huh,” Zelda sighed, looking at the peach of pre-dawn in the sky. “Be awake.”

“Great. I think it’s time I taught you two some Grazock card games,” Gil said, pulling a deck out of his pack.

“Oh! I love games!” Link said.

Many of the citizens of Rito Village woke early that morning, either from the shock of a scream in the night, or early morning laughter.


	3. Leaves

Gil had begun to feel warm again when they reached the edge of the forest. In the back of his head, Ganon paced and muttered.

“Do you think that the Great Deku Tree will even let us enter the forest?” Gil asked him.

Ganon froze before asking, “Why would you ask that?”

“You’ve only been complaining and worrying about it for the last half-hour,” Gil replied. “When you open your mouth and make sounds, people hear them.”

Ganon glared then turned with a flick of his cape and strode into the private part of Gil’s mind that he occupied. There was no retreat from Ganon for Gil in his section of his mind, which looked like a grand library, filled to the ceiling with maps, books, and comfortable reading chairs. As Ganon opened the separating door, Gil saw a sliver of bright blue sky against red desert before the door slammed.

“Probably better that way,” he thought to himself and turned his attention to the outer world, where Link and Zelda were gently squabbling.

“There’s no way you hear it, you just feel it in your bones!” Link said.

“It’s definitely a sound, and it gets louder and quieter as you go,” Zelda replied.

“Either way, we should start our trip,” Gil said. “Regardless of how the path identifies itself, I’m disinterested in following it in the dark!”

“Gil’s always right!” Link said, grabbing Gil’s left arm.

“Practical and precise!” Zelda said, grabbing his right.

“Well someone has to be!” Gill said, lifting both of them off the ground as they giggled maniacally.

\------------------------

The Lost Woods would haunt Gil’s nightmares, he just knew it. The grass stung and chattered over the lumpy ground. Trees grew faces and lost them again from just beyond his vision. He had a deep feeling that he was not built to be here, like a desert snake, blind in the shadows. 

Despite this, between Zelda’s impeccable memory and Link’s intuition, they had almost made it through when Gil tripped on a knotted root.

A hand pulled him back from the misty laughter. Zelda and Gil both fell to the ground, and Link scoffed.

“It’s not a big deal to go into the mist, you just end up at the entrance again,” she said.

“The forest loves you Link, it may not be as friendly to others,” Zelda said, with a nervous grin.

“Thank you,” Gil said as he helped Zelda up.

“Umm, of course,” she said, brushing the ancient dirt off her tunic.

They stumbled through the entrance of the Korok Forest as the last blush of sunset left the sky. Gil still felt a heavy presence, as though they were being watched. The fog lapped at their feet.

Link and Zelda led the way to a pedestal. Zelda cried out, “O Great Deku Tree, will you not greet your guests who have traveled so far to see you?”

There was a silence before a deep voice rumbled across the clearing.

“Welcome princess. Champion. And… guest.” The Great Deku Tree rattled. “I had hoped you would make your way to us soon.”

“Thank you Great Deku Tree, and thank you for your hospitality,” Zelda said, bowing. Gil followed suit. Looking at the long-reaching roots, he wondered how old the tree could be.

“The world is growing again,” the Great Deku tree rumbled. “Deep in the soil, poison turns to water. Hyrule has suffered deeply, but she is slowly healing from the blight. On behalf of the forest, thank you for saving her while she could still return.”

Creatures leaped from the darkness, and before Gil could gather his magic, they were overwhelmed by small shrubs that leaped in the air, making a noise like rattling leaves. Link seemed to understand and respond to the creatures, who leaped on her.

“I see that my children, the Koroks agree,” the Deku Tree rumbled as a Korok flew into Gil’s arms, and hugged his bicep.

“We are overjoyed to have helped save Hyrule,” Zelda said, “But even now, we are on the move. We have been tasked with a new journey, to perform an ancient spell. We need a Korok twig.”

The Great Deku Tree paused as the Koroks composed themselves. One swung wildly in Link’s hair before there was a tiny snap and the Korok fell to the ground with a surprised rustle. 

“You alright?” Link asked. The Korok looked extremely embarrassed, for a shrub, before nodding and scuttling off.

“There is your twig,” the Deku Tree said warmly.

\-------------------------

Gil woke with a start in the night.

Above the canopy, the stars twinkled, warm and close. Link was barely visible in a pile of wood and leaf bodies. Zelda and Gil had strategically moved away from the maraca-bearing Korok, who was performing an admirable approximation of a snore just by rustling his leaves. Zelda was still asleep, but Gil felt a presence.

He was drawn back to the pedestal and walked through the moonlit grove. The Great Deku Tree shifted.

“You carry a great burden, little one,” the tree said. “I recognize the presence in your mind, the one the forest was ready to reject. He who brings fire.”

“Yes,” Gil said, bowing low again. “Ganondorf is the one we will perform the spell for. To send his soul to the Realm of the Dead.”

The Great Deku Tree was still, and the silence stretched on. Gil had wondered if the tree had fallen asleep. Then it rustled again.

“Just like Hyrule, the soul you carry has been poisoned. It has been filled with a demon’s power, but even before that, that soul was willing to shape the world to his will, no matter the cost. The soul of Ganon is just older than I, and it has spent that time twisted with power. The weight of the lives he has taken will follow him even to the Realm of the Dead.”

“Fire consumes the forest, then the fire is extinguished. The ash falls to the ground and grows the new trees. Ganon caused the death of the Great Deku Tree before me, and yet I would never have grown had he not done so. A truth of the world in my lifetime has been that there are the three Triforce-holders, and they keep a balance in the world. When peace seems to go on forever, chaos and pain return. It is easy for me to forget that Ganon is not a demon himself, he is only a being of this realm.”

“The soul you carry in your body was fire. It consumed all that it could. Now it desires to go into the earth and let new things grow. I am frightened because I do not know what will grow from that field of charcoal. It is not one I thought I would ever see. What would the Triforce look like if it is freed of demonic power? I do not know that, but I do know that your quest is an honorable one.”

“Thank you Great Deku Tree,” Gil said.

“Take care though, little one. That which looks like ash can flare into destruction again. And when the fire is out, you will need to think about what you will grow in the new soil. Goodbye.” The Great Deku Tree grew to stillness.

Gil went back to his bedroll, head full of questions. When he entered the library of his mind though, Ganondorf’s desert doorway was still fully closed.

**Author's Note:**

> I've started back to writing again! It's funny, I wrote this chapter and was immediately compelled to write Beedle's entire backstory. I haven't decided what I'll share yet, though my inclination is to share all of my extra writings about this story at some point...
> 
> I wasn't sure about including the Kaysa section in the main story, but it just seemed so joyful to write a world with an enormous gender-affirming fairy godmother who could give you the effects of surgery and HRT without pain and long recovery. I wanted to share it ASAP!
> 
> Take care, and thanks as always for reading.  
> \- Lavender


End file.
